More of My Florida Guest Room!!!

I added shutters to the sliding doors, just like I did in my master bedroom.

Here's what they looked like before the shutters.....

Bare feeling, not cozy. I had been thinking about changing the doors to look like French doors, but in Florida, to be practical because of warping...

you need to use fiberglass, and I don't like the way the grills are held in the fiberglass doors.

So, I didn't know what to do, until I saw what my neighbors did, 

sooooo....

I did it toooooo!!!!!

I find the transformation amazing.

Even after all these years of decorating,

I still get a rush when something so simple makes such a 

dramatic difference!!!!!

Here's a full view....

('cuz I really love how this turned out!!!)

It opens right onto my postage stamp pool!!!!

Looking straight across to my bedroom, with its own set of

 new plantation shutters!!!

Quite a change from when I first saw this house!!!

The view out the door has certainly improved!!!

OK, on to the next wall,

THIS ONE IS DONE!!!

At the foot of the bed is an armoire that has the acanthus leaf turnings of the West Indies style I was going for.....

I had it hauled down from Massachusetts along with the monster I put in my living room.

IT GAVE ME ANOTHER SURFACE FOR MORE

STUFF!!!!!

So, of course.....

I had to cram some more birds and vases in the room...

I had an opportunity to collect another color!!!!

Yippee!!!

YELLOW!!!!!

I thinks its pretty.

Just a bunch more McCoy and Abingdon pottery with Royal Copley birds

I swear, when I'm sleeping, the damn things are multiplying.

But who wouldn't want some of these!!?????

OK

I'll come clean.....

The reason I showed you so many pictures of the collection on top of this armoire....

IS BECAUSE, IT TOOK ME TIME TO TAKE THEM,

(I had to get up on a ladder)

 SO I'LL BE DAMNED IF YOU GUYS DON'T HAVE TO LOOK AT THEM!!!

I lucked out, and found a pair of split reed small barrel chairs to flank the armoire.

You know how I love split reed.

I WAS ABLE TO GET THREE PIECES IN ONE ROOM!!!!!

The starfish is made out of plaster, I think I got it from Pottery Barn.

I wish I could find another one, 'cuz when I had some work done in the powder room that backs up to this wall, the vibration of the hammering caused one to fall off its nail and break, now I only have one.

WELL I NEED TWO.

The prints are more birds by John Gould, the same guy who painted the birds over the bed.....


NOW...
Before I go.....
Here's a picture of one of the birds on the side of my armoire....

This guy is different.....
He was made by Roselane in Pasadena Ca.
Probably from the 40's.
THIS IS MY PROBLEM!!!!
I now have two of these off white birds, one on either side of the armoire.
I also have two in green on the chest of drawers that I will show you tomorrow......
OK, now that makes 4 by this company......
WHEN HAVE I EVER STOPPED AT 4 OF SOMETHING?????
I'm running out of space, and I feel a compulsion to add more @#$ birds!!!!


HELP!
I'M COLLECTING AND I
CAN'T STOP!!!!!


Later, Gator

Short Term Guest Room

Let's continue the tour of my Florida guest room....

I put a king size bed in the room, so the couples that visit me would get a good nights sleep and not be grumpy in the morning.

I DON'T WANT NO GRUMPY GUESTS!!!!

I would have preferred using a pair of twins, since I think they make a prettier guest room,

BUT!!

Being the gracious hostess that I am.....

I put my guest's comfort before my decorating urges.

King size beds are a pain in the @$$ to make!!!

The sheets are the size of a football field.

JUST ANOTHER REASON TO BE HAPPY THAT I'M NOT MARRIED!!!!

As you can see in the photo below.....

I have a few more ceramic birds in this room...

Some go this way...

Some go that way....

And some just hang out in the middle

In the morning I check to see if there are any droppings on the pictures under the shelf.....

So far, so good.

Most of the birds are more than likely made by Royal Copley;

 a company whose motto was:

"Gift shop merchandise at chain store prices"

They sold figurines at 5 &10 cent stores in the 40's and 50's.

The pieces were hand-painted using air brushing. 

According to the Seabring Ohio Historical Society webpage...

“Birds were among the most popular figures, it is estimated that about 500 dozen birds were made each day. They sold at chain stores starting at 25 cents retail, having arrived at the store for around 15 cents each. Currently, the more embellished and large items are selling for $50-150!”

All I can say is that now I own 

ALL OF THEM IN AMERICA!!!!

To continue the bird them, I found John Gould prints of parrots and macaws. 

I found them on ebay of course!!!

when the smaller parrot prints arrived from the Australian seller...

they were TOO white. 

Looked brand new...

Probably were only a couple of years old....

Didn't work.....

SOOOOO.....

I did what any self respecting DIY decorator would do!!!!!

I made a tea bath and dipped them in it!!!!

Then scrubbed the tea bags around on top of the paper a little more.

It came out uneven, but good enough for me....

After all, I wasn't selling these suckers....

Things don't need to be perfect in my house.

ESPECIALLY IF I'M THE ONE MAKING IT!!!

According to Wikipedia:

John Gould (14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist and bird artist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates that he produced with the assistance of his wife, Elizabeth Gould and several other artists including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart. He has been considered the father of bird study in Australia and the Gould League in Australia is named after him. 

Not to let you know how clueless I am, but before I went on ebay looking for parrot prints, I had never heard of him. 

WHO KNEW???!!!

You may recognize this chair form Chloe's visit!!

It's more of my lovely split reed. 
I just LOVE this stuff.

At the time I posted this, I hadn't realized that there was a framed photo of her on the table behind the chair!!!

Think I'm just a little obsessed with this dog???


The vase is a piece of McCoy

the bird is from Italy

and the plate is a piece of my Wannopee pottery collection.
I have these plates on the walls of this room and hung 
in my Massachusetts family room.
THEY IS ADDICTING....
so if you buy one, be ready to buy more.
These plates are called lettuce-leaf ware, although a cabbage leaf was used to make the mold. 
They started making them in America in 1901, and were based on Italian majolica.
They come in lots of sizes, so if you decide to collect some to make a wall display, you can create something wonderful by using different sizes.

I found the pair of lamps at a local antique show/flea market.
I love these guys, they are truly funky.
I used shades from Pottery Barn to top them off.
I really lucked out by finding green shades that worked with this room.

The whole lamp is make out of grass or pine needles
 (I don't know what it is) 
and dried leaves.

I still have to recover this little bamboo style footstool I found.
I'll probably do it in the floral fabric I used throughout the room.

I tried to use fabrics with tropical flowers in their design for this house.
This creamy yellow pattern is full of magnolias.

I used it in the draperies and the three chair cushions.....

It's spring here in Southern Florida, 
and the magnolias are blooming.
Their perfume fills the air and the blossoms are gorgeous.
So, if you are stuck up north.....
EAT YOUR HEART OUT.....
but if you come to visit......
MAKE SURE IT'S A SHORT ONE!!!


Later, Gator

Partying at:

Finishing up my Tropical Cottage Living Room

I'm almost done with this part of the living room.

I bet you thought I would never finish.

So I googled the name on this lamp. It still has it's label. 

I had trouble figuring out the name, 'cuz it looked like

Gordey.

But the great thing about Google, is if you don't have a clue.....

(meaning, if you are clueless.)

it suggests other options to consider.

It kept trying to tell me, what I really wanted to look up was:

Cordey.....

Sooooooooooo..............

I toodled around the internet, and found a Cordey figurine that still had its label, 

and it matched my lamps label!!!!!

soooooooo.........I looked up info on the company, and this is what it said:

It was founded in 1942 and produced stuff until the mid century.

Sooooooooo....

This guy is actually older than I thought.

You've probably noticed that my bird theme flows over onto my lamps.

YOU IS SO SMART!!!!!

Another Bird Lamp!!!!!

I know absolutely Nothing about this lamp.

So you have been saved from having to read a lot of boring @#$.

I have a collection of sardine boxes. This is the only one that is metal.

It's silver plate. Just one more piece that I'm not polishing.

On the back wall of my living room, by my drafting board, i have a wall full of palm trees and tropical birds.

The guy from ebay that sold this to me was an IDIOT!!!!!!!!

When he shipped this picture, he didn't protect the glass properly.

It came with the glass in broken shards that tore up the watercolor in the top right corner.

WELL!!!!!

I loved the feeling of this piece, so I took it to my local framer who mounted the artwork on a paper board as close to the color of the painting as possible. 

Then......

I used chalk pastels to color the new board, trying to match the color of the clouds.

To finish off the repair, I actually grabbed some dirt and smeared it around on the paper.

Then I had it put back in the frame with new glass.

I think I did a pretty damn good job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the GREAT things about ebay, is getting to see such a wide selection of stuff you'd never run across if just antiquing at your local stores.

You also get to see just how much of the same crap is out there!!!!!

I was looking under artwork for "Tropical Birds", and came across this pair of oil paintings. 

I felt like I had scored this amazing rare find!!!!!

ONE OF A KIND, I tell ya!!!! ONE OF A KIND!!!!!

After buying them, I kept looking for "tropical bird" paintings, wanting to fill up my walls.

WELL, much to my Surprise I not only found the same pair again, but AGAIN!!!!!

They must have been mass produced in a painting studio around the Victorian era. Nice to know that poster art has been around a long time.

I have NO stories about these three paintings, soooooo

just look at them.

I keep this magazine rack by my drafting table. I use it to hold my drafting supplies. I think I am very clever!!!!!!

While I'm talking about my drafting table...............

Let me show you what I'm working on now!!!!!

I'm redesigning my laundry room.

It's going to be my next project!!!!  

That squiggle to the right is me.

I always draw a stick figure in that is my height, so I can check the scale.

That's when I realized that it would be hard to reach my library books in the top wire wall basket. But I liked the way it looked there, so I ordered another one from Ballard Deign, and drew it in freehand at the bottom.

This is where I will hold my library books, so I don't forget to take them back to the library!!!!!

I don't know if I will have time to renovate the laundry room this winter, or if I have to wait till next year. That's one of the disadvantages of living 6 months at a time in a place. It can take me that long to figure out what I want to do next.

This is one of those walls that looks bare with nothing on it.

YET has absolutely no purpose. Sooooooo....

I just stick stuff in front of it that looks pretty.

The ship is a flower frog!!!!!

It was made in Czechoslovakia and imported to the US probably sometime in the 30's or 40.s

(or 50's)

It's stamped with the importers name:  Erphila.

The bird is an older chalkware piece, probably made around the turn of the last century.

Being a classy babe.....

Along with my finer collections.....

I have me some Florida SOUVENIR plates!!!

I use them on tables to act as coasters. 

MIX YOUR STUFF UP FOLKS,

MIX YOUR STUFF UP!!!!

And, LASTLY!!!!!

Here's a photo of some of the pillows I sewed with my own little hands out of vintage barkcloth.

Hope you enjoyed my Living Room!!!!!

Now, on to the next space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!